My Photo Stream vs iPhoto Library Photos vs Shared iCloud ? ? ? ? ?

whirlpool

It can't just be me who is failing to find a clear, satisfactory explanation of the difference between the following areas:

1. Photos > Albums > My Photo Stream (on iPhone)
2. iPhoto > Library > Photos (on Macbook)
3. iPhoto > Shared > iCloud (on Macbook)

I'm so incredibly confused about the difference and I cannot understand why there isn't a simple, concise explanation of the difference between these anywhere online. My brain is fried trying to find one.

Can anyone help? Questions I have about them include if I delete a photo on one of the above, on which of the others does it also get deleted? When do the photos delete themselves from each one?

Zcott

I believer the iCloud shared library on your Mac is the same as the Photostream on your iPhone.

For iOS 8 they're making this a lot simpler with a photos app for Mac, and all your photos will go up to the cloud.

Sad Professor

2 is just the locally stored iPhoto library on your Mac. And yeah, 1 and 3 are the same thing.

Photo Stream is a stream of photos recently taken on all your devices. So you take a photo on your iPhone and it is uploaded your photo steam in the cloud which you can then access from all your other devices.

The main thing to keep in mind about Photo Stream is that it is temporary. The photos aren’t permanently stored in the cloud nor synced to other devices. They will usually delete themselves from the cloud after 30 days although they may be stored on your device for longer. If you want to keep a photo you need to make sure it’s saved somewhere, either to your iPhoto library, the camera roll on the device it was originally taken or an album on that device.

If you want iPhoto can automatically import Photo Stream photos to its own library. You can enable this in iPhoto preferences > iCloud. You will still need to open iPhoto from time to time for it do this.

Hope this makes sense. As Zcott said, iOS 8 and Photos for Mac will greatly simplify all this.

whirlpool

Zcott wrote: »

I believer the iCloud shared library on your Mac is the same as the Photostream on your iPhone.

For iOS 8 they're making this a lot simpler with a photos app for Mac, and all your photos will go up to the cloud.

Sad Professor wrote: »

2 is just the locally stored iPhoto library on your Mac. And yeah, 1 and 3 are the same thing.

Photo Stream is a stream of photos recently taken on all your devices. So you take a photo on your iPhone and it is uploaded your photo steam in the cloud which you can then access from all your other devices.

The main thing to keep in mind about Photo Stream is that it is temporary. The photos aren’t permanently stored in the cloud nor synced to other devices. They will usually delete themselves from the cloud after 30 days although they may be stored on your device for longer. If you want to keep a photo you need to make sure it’s saved somewhere, either to your iPhoto library, the camera roll on the device it was originally taken or an album on that device.

If you want iPhoto can automatically import Photo Stream photos to its own library. You can enable this in iPhoto preferences > iCloud. You will still need to open iPhoto from time to time for it do this.

Hope this makes sense. As Zcott said, iOS 8 and Photos for Mac will greatly simplify all this.

Thanks!

I sincerely hope they simplify this in iOS 8.